EndWar

General Kennedy returned to the screen. “Sir, the threat has been eliminated. Now I suggest we turn our attention to the next one.”

“Those helos up in Canada.”

“That’s right. But sir, we count more than sixty heavy Russian transport aircraft with fighter escorts lifting off from every air base along the east coast of the country. Could be one or more brigades, with accompanying vehicles. We believe they’ll put down just north of Alberta.”

“Let’s get some fighters up there to stop them.”

“There are far too many aircraft, and many of our units in Alaska have been deployed to Europe. The squadrons we do have are already in the air.”

Becerra held back a curse. “Kapalkin has been working on this one for a long time, carefully weakening us, spreading us out too far.”

“Well, as we like to say, Mr. President, the balloon is going up. At the very least, we’d like to get boys from the Tenth Mountain up there, along with some Marines from Pendleton. And we have a Stryker Brigade in Alaska we’ll bring down, along with another one we’ll bring up from Fort Lewis, so long as you can work out a deal with the prime minister.”

“What about air strikes?”

“They’ll have limited effect, because if we’re right, the Russians will be attempting to seize key infrastructure, pipelines, refineries, and so on, intact. We can’t risk damaging those facilities, so for the most part, we’ll be on the ground, with close air support at our shoulders. We’ll need to hold back on the bombers and kinetic energy weapons as our very last resorts.”

“I think the prime minster would agree.”

She smiled crookedly. “Mr. President, I also have to point out that the Russians could cut off their noses to spite their faces.”

“You mean if they can’t control the Alberta reserves—”

“They’ll destroy them. In fact, if those inbound Russian aircraft were bombers, we’d assume that’s the mission. Still could be.”

“General, can we do this? Can we fight this war on multiple fronts and put more people up in Canada?”

“We think so, sir. And remember, the Russians are further dividing their own forces to continue their push. But the key is the prime minister. If you can get him to commit his forces, we’ll be in a lot better shape.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen, not in any official capacity anyway. There will always be some Canadian units that’ll fight if attacked, no matter what the prime minister says.”

“So in that regard, the Russians might be doing us a favor.”

“Yes, sir. In the meantime, we’ll get what fighters we can in the air to disrupt those incoming aircraft.”

“Good. You know, I just spoke to an F-35 pilot operating out of a little base north of Yellowknife. She took out more than half a dozen of those Russian helos. I want her up there.”

“I’ll make sure of that, sir.”

FIFTEEN

Major Stephanie Halverson spotted Boyd lying in the snow, not far from the ejection seat, half covered by the drogue chute. He’d unbuckled, crawled a few meters in the snow, and collapsed. He wasn’t moving.

Now she wouldn’t just fly over, trying to figure out if he was alive or dead. And she wouldn’t tell Igloo Base what she was doing. With the Russian helos still not far off, they would never authorize such an action. They had just ordered her back to refuel and rearm.

Of course she would comply (eventually), but she couldn’t live with herself if she abandoned Jake. She’d rather take the risk, which was, damn it, risking everything.

And God help her, she set down on the snow, landed the multimillion dollar bird, leaving her entirely vulnerable to air attack.

It took her another minute to detach herself from the cockpit, remove her helmet, and finally get down to the snow.

The icy wind stung her cheek, and it smelled as though a storm was coming.

“Jake!” She jogged toward him, the top layer of snow breaking into glistening puzzle pieces that rose to her ankles.

She reached him, slowly rolled him over, and worked on getting off his helmet. Finally, it gave. His nose had been bleeding and his left cheek was beginning to swell.

“Jake, can you hear me? It’s Steph.”

His eyes flickered open. “I want to puke.”

“It’s good to see you, too.”

He swallowed. “I’m so embarrassed. I don’t know what happened. It was like a dream… they fired rockets!”

“I know, Jake.”

“Wait a minute. What the hell? You landed?” He suddenly sat up, looked to her plane, the engine still humming.

“Jesus, Major!”

The ejection seat had a built-in survival kit that was now connected to his chute. Ignoring him, she fetched it, brought it back over. “Can you move?”

“I’m just banged up. I don’t think anything’s broken.”

“Think you can fly?”

“What the hell you talking about?”

“I want you to take her back. Rescue helo is already on the way. I’ll catch it.”

“Steph, you’re not thinking right. You don’t put an injured pilot back in the cockpit.”

She looked at him, thought about how wired to panic she was, how full of rage, the tremors still working into her hands.

“Okay, yeah. You’ll be all right?”